In general, people typically want to be accessible via a communications device; however, due to both technical and personal reasons, a person may not always be available to answer incoming phone calls. In such situations, it is useful to have a service that enables the person who missed the incoming phone call to see information associated with the missed call (e.g., caller name, caller phone number and the like). Such a service offers the person who missed the incoming call (i.e., the called party) an option to return the missed call.
The telecommunication systems of today commonly support two features that address a portion of this problem. One such feature is voicemail service, which provides the caller the option of leaving a message that is later used by the called party to return the missed call. A second feature is a missed call log device that maintains a list of incoming calls missed by the called party. Unfortunately, each of these existing features has serious drawbacks.
Voicemail services depend on the caller leaving a message, and the caller phone number is only known if the caller leaves the phone number as a portion of the message, or if the called party recognizes the caller's voice. Furthermore, voicemail services do not provide easy access to callback functionality. Missed call log devices (e.g., caller-ID devices, phone displays and the like) are terminal specific and do not work when the missed call log device is turned off. Furthermore, missed call log devices must be integrated into or co-located with the called device (i.e., the called party's phone). Although missed call log devices often offer callback functionality, callback may only be done through the same missed call log device.
As such, a need exists in the art for a method and apparatus for accessing missed call information from a variety of devices and locations.